Stefan Korn - Successful Online Start-Ups For Dummies

Successful Online Start-Ups For Dummies, Australian and New Zealand Edition

by Stefan Korn

Successful Online Start-Ups For Dummies , Australian and New Zealand Edition

Published by
Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
42 McDougall Street
Milton, Qld 4064

www.dummies.com

Copyright 2012 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Author:Korn, Stefan.

Title:Successful Online Start-Ups For Dummies/Stefan Korn.

Edition:Australian & New Zealand ed.

ISBN:978 1 11830 270 5 (pbk.)

Series:For Dummies.

Notes:Includes index.

Subjects:New business enterprises Management.

Electronic commerce Management.

Dewey Number:658.11

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About the Author

Stefan Korn is a New Zealandbased internet entrepreneur who is passionate about online technology and enjoys the challenge of getting new businesses off the ground. Stefan has a PhD in artificial intelligence and machine learning, an MBA in international business and an honours degree in computer engineering. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Stefan held senior management roles for large international corporations in the IT, telecommunication and hospitality sectors. In 2007, Stefan set up WebFund, a private incubator, to provide a vehicle for investments into online start-ups. Over the last five years, Stefan and his business partners at WebFund have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, helping them get started on their start-up journey and, for many of them, avoid financial failure with their ventures. In addition to running WebFund and serving his board duties for WebFunds investments, he is also actively engaged in community education and enjoys producing trance music tracks with his son, Noah.

Authors Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to thank my wife, Raquel, and my son, Noah, for letting me write this book (and thus forgoing some family time with me). Id also like to thank my business partners, Dave Moskovitz and Campbell Means, for their help and support over the years.

A special thank you goes to Lincoln Gasking who has inspired us all with his innovative ideas and projects, and for his help in reviewing the manuscript for this book.

Many thanks also to the wonderful team at Wiley Charlotte, Clare and Dani who helped tremendously with turning my raw thoughts into readable and structured content. Special thanks also to Rebecca Crisp, who believed in this book from day one.

And last but not least Id like to thank all the individuals and organisations who have worked with me over the last 15 years to provide many of the experiences I have covered in this book.

Thank you and best wishes for all your start-up ventures!

Publishers Acknowledgements

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial and Media Development

Project Editor: Charlotte Duff

Acquisitions Editors: Rebecca Crisp, Clare Weber

Editorial Manager: Dani Karvess

Production

Cartoons: Glenn Lumsden

Proofreader: Catherine Spedding

Technical Reviewer: Lincoln Gasking

Indexer: Don Jordan, Antipodes Indexing

Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material. Information that enables the publisher to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions is welcome. In such cases, please contact the Permissions Section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Introduction

Successful Online Start-Ups For Dummies is the first book written for entrepreneurs of technology start-ups in Australia and New Zealand. The content represents a summary of the last ten years of my life working in e-commerce and helping entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.

In 2007, I started WebFund, a private incubator for web-based start-ups, to formalise my efforts to help local ventures become wildly successful. Despite building up a portfolio of investments quickly, the experience of running an incubator is somewhat challenging because I get many more requests to help companies and entrepreneurs than I can accommodate with our resources. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs approach me at WebFund at a point in their start-up journey when theyve already made many common mistakes and have basically run out of resources or energy. At that point, I can really only help them realise the lessons learnt and motivate them to keep going as an entrepreneur potentially with a different venture.

With this book I hope to help entrepreneurs avoid some of these mistakes, and to either get off to the right start or never start the new venture in the first place. Fortunately, many tools now exist that make starting up far less expensive and risky than it used to be. Obviously, the start-up landscape is also more competitive but the rewards are greater than ever. As I finish writing this book, Facebook just bought Instagram for around $950 million after only 18 months in business. What an amazing start-up journey for Instagram and what a fantastic motivation to get going with your own start-up.